


A Good Night for Necromancy

by 94BottlesOfSnapple



Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Flirting, Halloween, Julian Doesn't Wear Gloves, Julian's Called Ilya All the Way Through, Made-up Festivals, Magic, Multi, Necromancy, New/Early Relationship, No Lucio AU, No Plague AU, OT4, Pronunciation Guide Needed, Sappy gifts, Self-Indulgent, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Way Too Much Syneas Backstory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-01
Updated: 2017-11-01
Packaged: 2019-01-27 17:57:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12587448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/94BottlesOfSnapple/pseuds/94BottlesOfSnapple
Summary: It's October 31, and Syneas is celebrating one of her home's traditional holidays with the three people (and one familiar) she loves the most. Considering she hails from a city of polytheistic rainbow-loving necromancers, it's a very interesting night.





	A Good Night for Necromancy

**Author's Note:**

> This is... Sooooo tangled up in Syneas' backstory. Most of which is stolen from an original story I've never managed to do anything with. But there's lots of weird words so I'll put the pronunciation guide at the top here.
> 
> Hyphigar - hih-fih-garr; the name of Syneas' religion  
> Hyphil - high-fill; a practitioner of Hyphigar  
> Thānox - thay-knocks; Death Night, the holiday being celebrated  
> Vutrix - vou-trish; one of the goddesses in the Hyphigar pantheon  
> yol ben - that one's pronounced just like it looks; a phrase that means 'be with you'

“Thanox…?” Asra said, twisting his mouth as he felt out the unfamiliar word.

Syneas laughed.

“No, no, with a long A. Thānox.”

“Thānox,” he repeated.

“Mm, there you have it!”

“So it’s a… Religious holiday?” Asra asked curiously.

Syneas sighed, scrubbing her hand through the hair at the back of her head.

“Well, not… I guess you could call it that?” she mumbled, frowning. “It’s not really a Hyphigar day of worship, per se. But we recognize it as the day of the year where the veil between the spiritual and physical realms is thinner – er, sort of a dimensional solstice? – and so it’s the best day of the year for performing acts of necromancy, which is, um… Well, what we’re all about.”

She lifted a cloak off the counter, fastened it over her shoulders, and straightened it. Then, glancing down at her hands with a sigh, she brushed the palm of the left one over the back of the right one, dispelling the glamour over it in a sparkle of turquoise magic.

Asra reached out for her hand and clasped it in his.

“You’re taking your glamour off?” he asked, running a thumb over the teal sigil inked onto the back of her right hand. “Are… Are you fine with that…?”

Syneas smiled and pressed a kiss to Asra’s cheek.

“Just for tonight. It’d feel wrong to hide it on Thānox,” she explained. “But thanks… For worrying. … Now, then. Help me decorate?”

“Obviously.”

Together they hauled out the box Syneas had been gathering supplies in for the past month and set to work. Colorful glass lanterns replaced the shop’s usual ones, banners of fabric were strung across the ceilings, and Syneas gathered up a rainbow of candles to set around the room.

They worked in tandem, laughing and bickering as usual, and dancing their way over Faust while she tried to investigate the decorations.

Caught up in their work, no one noticed the unlocked front door open.

“What’s all this…?”

Syneas whirled around in a flutter of fabric, a bright smile on her face and her arms still full of colorful candles.

“Ilya! You came!”

He blinked.

“Of course I… You invited me,” Ilya answered, a little baffled. “But you, er, what _are_ you wearing?”

Syneas blinked and looked down at herself.

“Oh! This is… I guess you’ve never seen me in this before, huh, Ilya?”

It was certainly a change from her usual attire, which tended towards pinks and purples. Instead, Syneas wore a hooded cloak over a wide-sleeved thigh-length tunic, decorated with an embroidered belt and sash that hung down to her calves – all in brilliant turquoise and teal. Underneath all that, her legs and arms were covered in tight-fitting black fabric.

“Those are her traditional garments,” Asra added, grabbing a few candles from Syneas’ arms and setting them in intervals on the glass counter. “Syneas is a Hyphil, Ilya.”

“Hyphil… The, uh, the necromancers from Auros?” asked Ilya, and his expression went a little uncomfortable.

“You don’t have to be so worried about it,” Syneas insisted. “You know, the word necromancer gets a bad rap, but it isn’t as though we go around practicing blood magic or making zombies or anything.”

She flitted around the shop, setting candles here and there to her liking. Hanging his overcoat on the hook by the door, Ilya took another step further into the room. Asra grinned up at him teasingly.

“You’re so squeamish, Ilya. Isn’t that sort of thing supposed to be right up your alley anyway?”

Ilya flushed red with embarrassment. Finished with her decorating, Syneas moved closer to them both and swatted Asra on the arm.

“ _Behave_ ,” she scolded. “There’s nothing wrong with a little caution. Especially when you don’t have all the information. Mm, but first…” Syneas pulled Ilya into a fierce hug. “I’m so glad you could make it.”

He returned the hug immediately, though he pinked beneath the gaze of Asra’s knowing purple eyes.

“I, ah… I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” the redheaded doctor managed at last. “Although I’m not… Really sure what _it_ is, to be honest…”

“Thānox!” Syneas chirped, pulling away and moving to the shelves behind the shop’s counter. “Um, I think it means something like, ‘Death Night’? It’s only the best festival ever! And of course I’m the strongest on this night too, since necromancy is so potent.”

“So, when you, er… When you say necromancy…”

Syneas laughed.

“Well, to be truthful, anything can be necromancy, if you look at it from the right angle. Death is a fundamental part of all we are and all we do,” she answered, shifting through the glass bottles on the middle shelf. “Originally, the term ‘necromancy’ was dedicated to those communing with the spirits of the dead. Most people think of it as resurrection nowadays, um, but… Ah! There it is. But where I come from, that’s not the case.”

“Oh…?” asked Ilya.

“Well, I mean, we can do that too, I admit,” Syneas told him with a shrug. “But a lot of our necromancy falls into spiritual communication, divination like my psychometry, or even medicine.”

That got his attention. Ilya straightened up. Syneas studied the bottle in her hand critically, shaking it a few times, and did not elaborate.

“Medicine?” pressed Ilya eventually, fidgeting.

Syneas blinked and glanced up at him.

“Well, yes. Actually, Hyphils can see death – that is, um… How to put it… Say for example there was a plague infecting Vesuvia right now. I would be able to see the death hanging over the city, like a um…” She waved her free hand. “Like a sort of miasma in the air. A visible cloud of death. I suppose that in and of itself wouldn’t do much to help, but if I were, say, an outsider, I would be able to tell from a distance to stay away from the city. But we’re also adept at channeling life energy – sapping it or doling it out. I could potentially use my own life energy to sustain someone on the brink of death, or to perk up a wilted flower. Or act as a conduit to transfer energy from one thing to another.”

Ilya leaned on the counter, fascinated, and nearly knocked over a green candle. He fumbled a few seconds – knocking two more candles over in the process with his long arms – and caught it before it could roll onto the floor. Then, in an attempt at being discreet, he set all the candles back upright and cleared his throat. Asra snorted into his hand, trying to hold back hysterics at the display.

“So, er. Then I suppose you could call that a kind of healing magic?” Ilya asked a little too loudly to be casual. “Is that what doctors in Auros use?”

“Oh, no!” Syneas exclaimed with a startled laugh. “I mean, it can be used in a pinch, but there’s no real conflict between magic and science, not for Hyphils. The city’s doctors are very well-trained. Actually, I think you’d really like it there, Ilya. Obsidian walls, red glass… And the biggest library I’ve ever seen anywhere. You could read for ten lifetimes and never finish all the books.”

Satisfied with the bottle she’d grabbed, Syneas set it next to a red candle and moved back around to be on the same side of the counter as Asra and Ilya. By the expressions on their faces, they both seemed rather enchanted with the idea of Auros’s library, and it made her smile.

Then Ilya gave a sudden yelp, and fell back against the counter. Thankfully he caught himself on his elbows and didn’t crack his head on the glass, but Syneas was mystified at what could have set him off. Until she trailed her gaze down from his flushed face, past his jacket, past his belt, and found Faust coiled firmly around his left thigh.

And then she burst out laughing.

“F-Faust, wh-what are you…?” Syneas managed to wheeze out between chuckles, clutching her gut.

“Like some others we know, she’s very fond of squeezing certain doctors,” Asra teased.

“W-will you just… Get her off me?” Ilya demanded, his voice pitching up in a way that was oddly endearing.

“Come on now, Faust,” Asra said, though there was absolutely no censure in his tone. “Ilya needs that leg back. He already has poor enough balance as it is.”

“ _Asra_ —”

But Asra paid Ilya no mind, just held out his arm for Faust. She uncoiled a bit and stretched out until she could reach Asra’s palm, and then slithered her way up his arm, releasing poor Ilya and his thigh. Syneas was still trying to contain her laughter.

Once they had all settled down – and Ilya had righted the candles he’d knocked down, _again_ – the doctor’s gaze wandered the shop contemplatively.

“You did a wonderful job decorating,” he told Syneas and Asra. “It all looks downright magical.”

Syneas couldn’t help the giggle that fell from her lips at the pun, and all it did was make Ilya grin that ridiculously charming grin of his. Asra rolled his eyes up to the ceiling, but it was easy to see that he was biting his lip to hold back a laugh too. Only because he didn’t want to encourage Ilya’s awful sense of humor, of course – completely ignoring the fact that his own wasn’t much better.

“Really though, this is nothing. You should see the celebrations in Auros… The way the colored lanterns make the obsidian shine…” Syneas sighed wistfully. “There’s nothing quite like it. I wish…” She shook her head and cleared her throat. “Well. It’s not important. This is perfect.”

Then there was a knock at the door, and Asra rushed to open it. Standing outside, a purple scarf wrapped around her head, was Countess Nadia.

“Come on in, Nadi,” Asra told her cheerfully. “I think we’re all done setting up.”

“Ah, of course,” Nadia mused as she took in the shop, trailing a hand across her silk scarf and unwinding it from her head. “It’s Thānox tonight, isn’t it? I’d forgotten you were a Hyphil, Syneas.”

Syneas just laughed.

“Well, despite my name I’m not very religious,” she admitted. “But Thānox has always been my favorite night of the year. I’m glad I get to celebrate it with all of you.”

There was a beat of silence, and then, ever curious, Ilya spoke up.

“So, what do we do?”

“Well, first,” Syneas began, but was immediately interrupted by her growling stomach. “… We eat.”

The other three laughed at her, and Syneas pressed her arms over her belly as if that would quiet it.

“You’re in for a treat,” Asra said at last, a smile still in his voice. “Syneas and I have been up all day cooking.”

“And the stove salamander,” Syneas called over her shoulder as she began climbing the stairs to the living area. “He helped too, obviously.”

“Yes, it would be monstrously rude to forget Mr. Salamander’s contributions,” Nadia agreed, following after her.

The other two trailed behind them, and Ilya had to duck his head a few times to avoid hitting it on the stairwell’s low ceiling. Finally, everyone made it upstairs. The living area was still pleasantly warm from the stove being lit all day, and everything glowed with yellow candlelight.

On the far side of the room, the small dining table was piled high with colorful foods. Meat, cheese, pastries, fruits… All of it artfully arranged.

“Goodness,” Nadia said as she took a careful seat. “You really did outdo yourselves with this. I’d have neglected to eat supper earlier if I’d known you were preparing food. I don’t wish to insult you with my lack of appetite.”

“N-no, no, it’s fine, Nadia!” Syneas exclaimed hurriedly. “I really should have mentioned it. And I’m sure we made too much anyway. Maybe you can wrap some up to take back to the palace. Most of this will keep for a day or two.”

Nonetheless, Nadia had at least a little taste of every dish. Asra went for all the strangest dishes – the ones he had cooked – and Ilya was a bit more cautious. He would take a small portion, and only serve himself more if he decided he liked it. Syneas, of course, already knew what she liked and went right for it.

Conversation was sparse, though fulfilling. Nadia told them all about the meetings she’d held regarding infrastructure on the south side of the city. Ilya mentioned that he’d come across a game of ball gone wrong and had to set some poor child’s leg. Syneas and Asra – in tandem and often talking over one another, set about telling the other two a story about a particularly nitpicky customer looking for an enchanted mirror.

At one point, Nadia and Ilya reached for the same small pastry and brushed hands. Burning red, Ilya snatched his arm back immediately, leaving a smirking Nadia to her prize. Sensing weakness, Asra took the opportunity to steal a bite off Ilya’s plate. The doctor’s protests were token at best. But, after all, it was difficult to stay mad at Asra – something Syneas knew firsthand.

In this way, the meal continued until everyone was satisfied.

As Syneas had suspected, even then there was still plenty of food on the table.

“So,” Nadia said with a smile. “What comes next in your Thānox festivities, now that your stomach is no longer producing sounds like a ravenous beast?”

“Nadia…! Don’t tease, it’s not funny…” Syneas mumbled, embarrassed. “A-anyway next is, um, is a sort of séance.”

“How frightening.”

Not that Nadia looked or sounded the least bit frightened; in fact her tone was more apt for a sentence like ‘how quaint’. Nonetheless, Syneas felt the need to reassure her. Just in case.

“Oh…! No, it’s… I mean, it isn’t. Not at all. You, um, you don’t have to if you don’t want to, though, Nadia. Really its more like… Ah, I’m not sure how to explain.”

“How about you show us instead,” Asra suggested, standing up from the table and stretching.

Faust was no longer perched on his shoulder – she must have wandered off while they were eating, Syneas supposed. With a shrug, she stood up too, and led the way back down into the shop.

When she reached the bottom of the stairs, Syneas flicked her wrist and all the candles scattered around the room sputtered to life, warming the shop with their glow.

Then she grabbed the bottle she’d left next to the red candle and settled down on the floor with her legs crossed. Asra plopped down to her left, Ilya to her right, and Nadia sat down across from her, tucking her skirt beneath her legs. Very carefully, Syneas uncorked the bottle and swirled its contents in a strange design on the floor in the middle of their circle.

“I didn’t have anyone or anything in particular in mind, for this,” admitted Syneas setting the bottle aside. “Usually, it’s focused around a family member or friend who’s passed away in the last couple of years. But I don’t really, um, get news from Auros, so… I thought it might be nice to do something lighter. More, um, surface level. Hands please.”

She held out her hands to either side, and Ilya and Asra both laced their fingers with hers. Then, to complete the circle, they each took hold of one of Nadia’s hands. A low hum, not quite sound but not quite anything else, filled the room.

“Now just close your eyes, and focus on the hands you’re holding, ok?” Syneas instructed. “I’ll do the rest.”

Everybody’s eyes slid closed. For three seconds, there was nothing – not even the hum of before.

And then the darkness behind their eyes splintered and burst like shattering glass.

The sensation was like flying high above Vesuvia, and below in the city were a million flickering lights in all colors of the rainbow. Even Syneas gasped.

“Oh,” she said softly. “Wow. I’ve never… This is a bigger range than I’ve ever had before. Well, I suppose it makes sense, with two magicians.”

“Those lights,” Ilya asked, “are those… Ghosts?”

“Mm. The colors correspond to… How they died. Uh… There’s a lot of pink, so that’s good. Pink means peaceful death.”

“And red?” Asra wondered.

“That’s violent death. Murder. Green is sickness. Those blue ones along the aqueduct are drownings. Um… And where… Ah. There, by the palace, do you see that purple one?”

“Just outside the gate,” Nadia confirmed. “What does purple mean?”

With a suddenness that was jolting, the four of them were floating directly above the gate, and the purple flame resolved into a humanoid figure.

“Purple means someone is trapped here,” Syneas answered. “The others… No matter how they died, even if they’re not at peace, they’re in a realm separate from us now. A spirit world. But this person… They can’t reach it. Which, um… Which I’d like to help them with. If the rest of you don’t mind…?”

“How do we go about doing that?” asked Asra, tilting his head to the side.

Syneas bit her lip.

“Well… In this case, since we don’t know who this is, I think… It’s better not to try and make contact,” she decided. “Normally this sort of thing isn’t really what people use this ritual for. Um, usually, it’s just a way to say hello, or goodbye. Or to connect more with your home, to its past. You watch, but don’t really interfere. But I’ve felt this presence at the palace gates for a while now and wanted to do something about it. And since the barrier between our world and that other one is thin right now, with a little bit of magic we can make a window between them.”

Nadia hummed thoughtfully.

“So you and Asra will make it, then?”

With a slight frown, Syneas shrugged her shoulders.

“Actually,” she said. “I was hoping you and Ilya would help too. You’re not magicians, but this stuff, life and death, that’s integral to all of us no matter who we are. We all have a connection to that other place.”

“But, I don’t understand it,” argued Ilya, looking troubled. “How are we supposed to do this?”

His grip on Syneas’ hand tightened a little. She squeezed back reassuringly.

“Magic is about will,” Asra explained, glancing at Syneas with a smile. “You and Nadi are pretty stubborn, Ilya, so as long as you stay focused I don’t think you’ll need to worry.”

“Probably _not_ the most tactful way to say that,” Syneas pointed out. “But… Asra’s right. Um, just… I don’t know, visualize a circle opening up under their feet? Hopefully that should do.”

Everyone’s gaze turned to the flickering purple figure standing by the palace gates. Slowly but surely, Syneas could feel the prickle of magic coursing through their little circle – hand to hand to hand, building exponentially until—

With a pop, the spirit vanished. And then reappeared a moment later, blazing yellow.

“Did it work…?” Nadia wondered. “Why are they yellow?”

“Yellow is for fated death,” Syneas explained with a relieved grin. “They made it to the other side.”

Their view of the palace wavered, then. Once. Twice. And then there was only the darkness behind their own eyelids.

When they opened their eyes and dropped hands, all of the colored candles throughout the room had been extinguished. The lanterns, however, had stayed lit. Each person in the circle glanced around at the others, fingers still buzzing with the feeling of magic.

“Thank you, all of you, for that,” Syneas said shyly. “I, I’m sure that isn’t what you expected to do tonight. But it made me happy to do it together.”

Ilya grinned, stretching his long arms as he stood.

“Well, it was certainly something to write home about, that’s for sure,” he said, leaning down to hold out an elbow for Syneas. “I’ll have to add it to my list of accomplishments: doctor, scholar, necromancer.”

She looped her arm through his, giggling, and let him pull her to her feet.

“I wouldn’t go around claiming a thing like that just yet, doctor,” Nadia told him, taking Asra’s offered hand to get up. “Your patients may expect you to bring them back to life if they die in your care.”

“… Hadn’t thought of that.”

“It’s part of your impulsive charm,” Asra said with a sly smile.

“Ilya’s future in necromancy aside,” Syneas cut in, “I… I have something, for all of you.”

She slid her arm out of Ilya’s and ducked behind the counter to grab her bag.

With shaking fingers, Syneas reached into the satchel and pulled out a handful of small objects. One by one, she handed each of the others one of them. Upon examination, they were glasslike stone discs with a hole in the center, tied so that they dangled from a loop of string.

The stone given to Asra was translucent but full of cloudy white swirls, Nadia’s shifted between light green and purple depending on the angle she held it at, and Julian’s was as red as his hair and full of glittering gold speckles.

“What’s this…?” Asra asked curiously, twirling the stone between his fingers.

Syneas shuffled her feet.

“They’re um… They’re charms,” she explained, fluttering her hands and blushing. “Thānox isn’t really a gift-giving day, but sometimes people make these for each other. Um. New friends, new lovers, newlyweds, or parents for their newborns. They, ah, they symbolize the death of a time before you knew each other. And the hope that a time like that won’t come again. So, I… I just thought, um. I wanted to… W-well, anyway. They’re just a silly superstition. You can hook them onto something or keep them in a pocket or, ah, whatever you want.”

Nadia quickly affixed hers to one of her bracelets, looping the string over and around to form a knot.

“Thank you, Syneas,” she said quietly, still studying the charm, and her face looked a little red. “This is… Very thoughtful. I will treasure it.”

“N-no, really, it’s, I, I mean…”

“Nadi’s right you know,” Asra added, slinging an arm around Syneas’ shoulders. “I think you put a lot more care into this than you want us to think. And we’re all very touched. Aren’t we, Ilya?”

Ilya jumped, startled at being suddenly addressed. His hands were still on the ends of the black cord he always had tied around his waist, and Syneas noticed immediately that the little goldstone charm she had given him was now hanging from the knot in the cord.

“Yes,” Ilya agreed, offering a soft little smile. “You’ve given us a gift that comes from traditions very dear to your heart.” He stepped closer, then reached out a hand and cupped the back of Syneas’ neck with it, threading his fingers in her hair. “That’s more precious than anything mere gold could buy.”

Asra gave a thoughtful little hum of agreement.

And then he caught Nadia and Ilya by the arms and dragged everyone into a clumsy group hug.

“Asra…!” Nadia sighed, exasperated. “Could you not have simply suggested an embrace instead of throwing us all against one another?”

“Hmmm… No, I don’t think so.”

He squeezed them all tighter for a moment, and then released them.

“Well,” said Ilya thoughtfully, once he’d regained his balance. “We’ve checked off food, necromancy, and gifts. Is there anything else to this holiday of yours, Syneas?”

She nodded.

“The last thing is, well.” Syneas fidgeted, tugging at the sleeve of her tunic. “If you don’t mind. We um… We all sleep next to one another. After lighting and dousing one last candle – to Vutrix – it’s supposed to um… Well. She’s the goddess of dreams, so it’s a dream-sharing ritual. Just a, a way to be close to the people you care about, since spiritual magic is so potent tonight. I-if you don’t want to that’s fine, I understand if maybe something like that is a bit too much to—”

Nadia clasped Syneas’ right hand in one of hers and lifted it to press her lips to the magician’s knuckles.

“I would be honored,” she said kindly, watching with amusement as Syneas’ face burned red.

Syneas couldn’t quite articulate herself after that, but her babbled thanks got through anyway.

“And you, Ilya?” prodded Asra with a smile that was half-challenge. “Or would you prefer not to have magic so close to your brain?”

“O-of course I’ll do it,” Ilya retorted hurriedly. “I mean I. Er. Since it’s important to you, Syneas, of course I will. I… I’d like to be close to all of you.”

The last admission turned his face a brilliant red. Asra shook his head.

“You’re such a flirt, Ilya,” he said fondly.

The four of them gathered around the counter and lit the final candle – a lavender one – then blew it out together.

“I, um… I don’t think the bed is big enough for all of us,” Syneas murmured, glancing up at her significantly-taller companions. “But Asra’s pillow-pile is really comfy. If you don’t mind…?”

Three faces smiled down at her fondly. Asra ruffled Syneas’ hair, and then led the way to the back room.

“Is there anything more we need to do, for the er. The ritual?” Ilya asked as they all settled down in the mound of pillows.

He unbuckled his boots and began tugging them off, glancing up at Syneas for an answer.

“No, nothing,” she replied as she removed her cloak and belt. “As long as we’re all touching it should work.”

“You don’t need to make up an excuse to cuddle, you know, Syneas,” Asra joked. “You can just ask.”

He held out a hand towards the floor and Faust darted in from beneath the fortune telling table to coil up around his forearm.

“ _Asra_ …! It is not an excuse!” Syneas insisted, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Mmm _hmm_ ,” he replied, teasingly skeptical.

Syneas huffed angrily.

“He really does know just what buttons to push with you,” said Nadia with a musical laugh, removing her crown and hair ornaments and shifting onto her side.

They all settled in instinctively, with Ilya and Nadia on the outside and Asra and Syneas in the middle. Nadia curled her left arm over Syneas so her bejeweled hand rested on Asra’s waist, and Ilya mirrored the posture – crisscrossing Nadia’s arm over Asra to lay his right hand on Syneas’ side. Then the two of them clasped hands above the others’ heads. Syneas and Asra laced their fingers together with Faust spiraling loosely around their arms.

“Comfy, everyone?” Syneas asked with a quiet yawn.

There was a sleepy chorus of affirmative answers. She smiled.

“Mm. Vutrix yol ben. Sweet dreams, you guys.”

Then Syneas closed her eyes and drifted off into a wonderful dream, safe and warm and home.


End file.
